The Forgotten Soldier: A Pike Logan Thriller (36 page)

72

I
closed the laptop lid and said, “So now you know who we are. What we do.”

Carly said nothing, glancing at Jennifer, then at me. I said, “You’ll have to sign some nondisclosure statements for the bean counters, but I don’t have them here.”

She finally spoke. “I’ve done some classified activities in my time, but this is beyond belief. I’m . . . sorry I agreed to be read on. I don’t want to know about this.”

I laughed and said, “Too late for that.”

She said, “Pike . . . this is illegal. Signing a nondisclosure or building a snazzy briefing makes it look official, like any other covert action, but it’s not.” She looked at Jennifer and said, “Is this what you knew before you agreed to join?”

Jennifer said, “No. Not really. Pike sort of tricked me into joining based on our cover organization. I’d get to do scientific research, and occasionally my company would be used to enhance United States security. I joined for him, but I stayed for the mission.”

I said, “Oh, bullshit. She pretends to be above it all, but you saw her in the park. She loves this shit. Yes, it’s illegal, but we control the outcome. It’s kept small, and we hire only the best.”

Carly’s face clouded over and she said, “You mean like Guy.”

I said, “Yes. Like Guy.”

A cycle of darkness was now between us and the death of Guy George. The aftermath had been brutal, because we had failed. It was something that would hang over my head until I laid it down for the final time.

Driving in our rental van, all of us kitted out for a hostile takedown like we were going against an imminent threat, we had planned on the move. Nobody wanted to escalate into lethal force, and we’d loaded down with nonlethal options. Guy had stated he’d start shooting the minute he saw us, but I didn’t think that would be the case. At least I hoped it wouldn’t be.

After failing to get Carly to answer her phone, I’d decided to mitigate the risk by reaching out to Guy directly. I’d had the Taskforce spoof Carly’s number, and was talking to him on the phone when we rounded the final mountain bend to Delphi. I could see the parking spots about a mile ahead, the thin road threading the side of a ridgeline and bulging out in front of the archeological site.

During the conversation, I was growing confident that Guy would stand down. I could hear it in his voice. Then, the discussion went south, his final words chilling. We were close enough to see the explosion, and arrived within a minute of its going off, the staff of the museum and random tourists just starting to react.

We pulled up in a rush, the man I’d fought in the park passing by, running the other way and looking back, a cut over his left eye bleeding freely. We leapt out, but there was nothing to be done. Carly was cradling Guy’s body, and he was destroyed. Carly was covered in blood, and I wasn’t sure if it was hers or Guy’s. The place turned into chaos, like an anthill kicked over, with people screaming and running back and forth.

Without words, the team deployed into a security perimeter and Brett, our designated medic, ran to the side of the car. He took one look at Guy and turned to Carly, breaking her away. He found her to be physically okay, and we loaded her into the van. Knuckles had the
presence of mind to scoop up a pistol lying on the ground next to Guy’s body, but that was all we could recover. We drove off, masked by the confusion.

Leaving Guy’s body behind.

I’d called the Taskforce immediately, giving them a SITREP and passing the pictures of the vehicle Guy had destroyed. I’d then debriefed Carly on the drive back, and learned that Guy had sacrificed himself to save her.

In the end, I’d been right. Someone was going to die at Guy’s hands, and there hadn’t been a damn thing I could do to stop it.

Kurt had called back within five minutes, and I walked him through everything I knew. The conversation was short and clinical, like describing a failed science experiment instead of the death of someone we both considered family. It ended with him telling me to sterilize Guy’s hotel room and to read on Carly, getting her under control.

Using Guy’s historical trace, I’d ordered Knuckles and Nick to track down his hotel room, sterilize it, then maintain eyes on for a night to see who else showed up. I decided reading on Carly to our operations could wait. She had been through a significant event, and her mental state took priority.

I’d let her call in to work, going secure on her phone and telling her boss what had occurred. Needless to say, it was a long conversation, the station having already heard of the incident, and losing their mind over the implications. When she’d hung up, she told me Secretary Billings was fine and that the two men from the museum had somehow linked up with him. Her voice sounded like it was business as usual, but her eyes were hollow. I refused to let her leave.

We’d spent the night talking, just letting her get her feelings out. Brett surreptitiously monitored her, with Jennifer and I providing a sounding board. At one point, she’d demanded to know what we were about. I’d told her to wait, that it wasn’t worth the effort now. All we needed to discuss was Guy. And Decoy.

Eventually, Brett had given her a sedative, and I’d given her my bed. I sent Jennifer to Nick’s room, and I slept on the couch.

In the morning, she had seemed much more herself, stating she had to get back to work—reports to write, people to talk to—and I knew I couldn’t stop her with just my incredible persona, but I had a briefing that might.

And, boy, did it ever.

She stared at my laptop screen and said, “Who else knows about the Taskforce?”

“That’s a little tricky. We have plenty of shell companies and cover organizations—doctors, boat drivers, pilots, that sort of thing—but very few are read on to the whole program. They know they’re doing something classified for the government, but they’re either working under a cover within a cover or are just doing it blindly because it’s helping out national security.”

I saw her face and said, “Don’t look like you’re shocked. You do the same damn thing. The Oversight Council, of course, knows all, as do the Operators. And now you.”

She said, “Why are you telling me this? I really don’t want to know. This thing is a gross violation of everything I’ve ever learned. It’s exactly what we laugh about when we hear the conspiracies about the CIA. Do you know how many congressional committees I’ve had to testify in front of on things that were benign? This would cause a complete meltdown. The destruction of the presidential administration.”

“Yeah, I know. Believe me, I know. That’s why Guy going rogue was so important.”

“But why me? If nobody else knows about it?”

“Because of your position and your support on past operations. You had to know we were something different when you saw Decoy and Knuckles in action in Peru. We’ve read on a few others who have been involved in operations unwittingly.”

I paused, then smiled. “But only if Kurt wants to recruit them.”

Carly shook her head, saying, “Don’t tell me a read-on means recruitment. No way. Decoy’s dead. And now Guy.” She looked me in the eye and said, “You talk about this organization as if it’s ironclad do-gooders, but Guy almost killed me. Because he was on a vendetta.”

Jennifer spoke up. “Hey, wait a minute. I wouldn’t be here if I thought this organization was evil. Like you, I had my doubts, but you have no right to judge. Guy was wrong, no doubt, and I wanted to bring him in, but he was onto something.”

“What do you mean?”

I said, “We’ve been given authority to explore the relationships of those three assholes doing business with Secretary Billings. Guy was convinced they were involved in his brother’s death in Afghanistan, and when he was hunting them, he found what he said was evidence of further terrorist activity.”

“Then why is Secretary Billings dealing with them? You just told me he was a member of the Oversight Council. Don’t tell me
you’re
rogue as well.”

“No, Billings knows what we’re doing. Why that jerk-off is continuing is beyond me. He’s always had his head up his ass, convinced he knows more than anyone else.”

She squinted her eyes, not liking me disparaging a cabinet official. She clearly hadn’t had to deal with him in an official capacity. I backed off, saying, “Okay, okay. He’s using them to help stabilize the Greek economy and apparently thinks they’ll help with some peace overtures in Afghanistan. He thinks he’s Henry Kissinger dealing with Black September in Lebanon at the same time they’re blowing up Israelis. Nobody believes they’re an imminent threat, but the bottom line is we still have Alpha authority.”

She had another question, but before she could broach it, the door to our room opened.

73

K
nuckles barged in, about to blurt something out, then saw Carly. Nick said nothing, shifting from foot to foot, still the new guy. Exasperated, I said, “And?”

Knuckles said, “And we’re clean. We policed up some electrical components and other odds and ends, including a box of Russian ammo, so I guess that nails down who owns the 6P9. We left his clothes and other travel stuff, only taking anything compromising.”

“Anyone show?”

“Yeah. Took a while, but they’ve obviously identified the body. Some beat cops came in, then a guy that looked like he was from the US Embassy. Nothing spiked. Looked like a standard investigation, so we let ’em go.”

“That’s fine. Did you find anything of value?”

Knuckles glanced at Carly again and I said, “She was just read on. You’re not hiding anything anymore.”

He grinned and said, “Good, because I was about to blow a gasket without being able to say anything. We got the safe-deposit key, and Guy’s research to track it down. We know the bank, and we’ve got all of his digital photos he’s taken. He was right. Those fucksticks are into some bad shit. I don’t know what, but he wasn’t kidding about that new man.” He nodded at Carly, saying, “The one you said was driving? Guy’s got photos of him getting a ton of cash and new
identification. On the island of Crete. How much do you know about him?”

She started to answer, and my phone rang with the peculiar ringtone telling me it was a secure call. The rest of the team heard it and knew what it was as well. They looked at me like a pack of hounds tracking a guy waving bacon.

I answered, then mouthed,
Kurt
.

“Hey, sir, I was just about to send you a report. Knuckles just got back.”

“Let’s have it.”

“First, looks like Guy’s alias is holding up. Knuckles watched the room overnight, and it’s not spiked with anyone other than local forces.”

“Well, that’s good news. From our end, keeping him as a tragic victim is shaky.”

“Nothing bad seen from this end. You do your magic, and we should be good. Carly’s read on to the program and good to go. She’s headed back to work to answer any further questions, but from her end, Secretary Billings’s meeting with Haider al-Attiya was kept out of the attack. His two friends managed to escape without getting rolled up.”

Kurt said, “Yeah, I know. I just got out of a briefing with the principals. Billings is headed to Oslo, Norway, and he’s taking all three of those guys with him.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“Nope. He’s even managed to convince the president to let him put pressure on Norway’s ambassador to give Haider’s driver a visa for Oslo. Apparently, that guy’s Haider’s go-to man for Afghanistan.”

“Sir, that’s the second thing I wanted to talk to you about. We’ve sterilized Guy’s hotel room, and we have digital proof that that ‘driver’ got his documentation in Crete days ago. He’s not some genius on Afghanistan politics.”

“Pike, anything that Guy came up with is not going to sway Billings. The man was running crazy.”

“Well, tell him to buckle the fuck up, then, because I’ve got a key to a safe-deposit box, and what’s inside isn’t going to be good news for his friends.”

“Pike. I need you to start looking at exfil options. Prepare to come home.”

I said nothing for a second, not sure I’d heard correctly. “What? We’re on an operational mission here. Yeah, Guy’s dead, but we got Alpha before that. And it’s
because
Guy’s dead that I’m continuing. He saved Carly’s life. Did you know that? In the end, he had a pretty fucking good trap, and Secretary Billings screwed it up. Guy gave his life to fix what he’d done wrong. He’s going to go down in history as evil, but he’s onto evidence about those guys, and I’m rooting that shit out.”

“I hear you . . . Pike, they’re going to pull Alpha authority. Shit, they’ve actually already done so. I just chose to not hear it.”

“What’s that mean?”

“President Warren said they wanted to revisit the Alpha authority at the next Oversight Council meeting. He meant he wanted me to stop all activities, then put it back up to a vote to reauthorize it, if they agreed. Which they won’t.”

I saw where he was going, giving me an out. “But he didn’t say that, did he? He didn’t
say
that he was rescinding Alpha
until
the vote, did he?”

I heard nothing but breathing, and I knew my friend Colonel Kurt Hale was about to step into Pike land. I said, “Sir?”

“No. He didn’t say that, explicitly.”

“So we have until the Oversight Council meeting before they can rescind it, right?”

Nothing.

“Right, sir?”

“Yeah. I guess that’s right.”

I broke into a smile. “When’s the meeting?”

“Two days. You don’t have anything in two days, and you’re done.”

“Oh, I’ll have something. Don’t think I can’t read between the lines here. Those fucks gave you Alpha just to bring in Guy. They played with Taskforce loyalty to get what they wanted.”

“Pike, that’s not true. They’re just making decisions based on the information they have. There’s a lot at stake here with Greece and Afghanistan.”

“Oh, bullshit, sir. They’re looking at the benefit of these guys like a neighborhood looking at the good the Mafia does, conveniently forgetting the murders. Guy was right. And we still do what’s right, don’t we?”

I saw Carly staring at me intently. I turned away. She might be read on, but she didn’t need to hear the inside baseball of what life in the Taskforce was really like.

Kurt said, “Pike, you get me something in two days, or we’re done. Guy’s sacrifice will mean nothing.”

I said, “Easy day, sir. They can forget about his brother, but I’m not forgetting about Guy.”

I hung up and everyone looked at me, waiting. I said, “We have two days.”

Knuckles said, “Two days to do what?”

“Rob a bank.”